Hierarchic Structure of Shish-Kebab by Neutron Scattering in a Wide <i>Q</i> Range

Abstract

We performed small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering (SANS and SAXS) measurements on an elongated blend of low molecular weight deuterated polyethylene (PE) and high molecular weight hydrogenated one (97.2/2.8) in a very wide range of scattering vector of 1 × 10-4−3 Å-1 to elucidate hierarchic structure of the so-called shish-kebab. Comparing the SANS and SAXS data, we found that the hydrogenated high molecular weight PE formed a large and long object aligned along the elongation direction. The SANS data were analyzed in terms of the multicore−shell cylinder model, and we found that the long oriented structure had radius of ∼1 μm and length of ∼12 μm and included about three extended chain crystals with radius of ∼45 Å. We believe that this oriented long object with a relatively low aspect ratio of about 12:1, which is called the row structure in this paper, is a precursor formed from deformation of network of high molecular weight components due to entanglements.